Introduction and overview

Abstract

This chapter explains the growth and to compare pan-European regime changes in the telecommunication sectors in the nineteenth and twentieth century by making use of the functionalistic and neo-functionalistic thinking. The changes of the telecommunication regime will be considered as results of spill-over effects, which either occurred subsequently or in direct connection with the regime changes. All three modes of telecommunication will be taken into account: the electric telegraph, telephony and radio. The chapter is based on the idea of a twofold concept of integration. Integration means either the standardisation of different economic parameters or the institutionalisation of forms of governance. Functionalism or neo-functionalism is rather an approach that aims at explaining the underlying logic of the development of international cooperation. The intellectual father of functionalistic thinking was the British political scientist David Mitrany. Mitrany’s idea has often been applied to the European Union.